Amanda Williams

Little Human Relics Amanda Williams

"The poems in Little Human Relics weave themselves through various notions of home: a family farm, the mythic backdrop of Bavaria, a cityscape rife with urban noise and expectations, and the quiet interiors of domestic life. Whether overhearing a lament about marriage at a nail salon, or standing vigil over the grave of a newly-buried horse, these poems invite readers to step over the page's threshold into a kitchen, a gothic cathedral, a lover's bed. These poems celebrate the ways in which devotion elevates all things in one's life to a position of reverence; a poem which marvels at the brutality of religious relics is placed alongside a poem depicting the mending of a child's nightgown, and suddenly that small act of love inspires equal awe. As the title suggests, these poems are carefully captured moments in a person's life that may have easily flown past her, but they all represent a constellation of objects, events, and characters who are undeniably worthy of praise. Like relics, they exist to both conjure memory, as well as teach readers a little bit more about what it means to be human."